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Help required with drop in features

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Sirus

Help required with drop in features
« on: March 12, 2019, 06:40:37 pm »
Basically my sister recently got herself a echo dot (3rd gen) and l wish to allow her to drop in to any of my devices (l have two) and she has her one on her own amazon account.

when l first tried to set it up it would only go to my main device which for the sake of example l will call "bedroom", l also have one in the "kitchen".

l originally did the setup via my phone by allowing a specific contact to access the drop in feature, but as previously stated all drop in requests went to "bedroom" it wouldnt even allow me to specify kitchen as an option.

amazon support told me l had to set my setup as a household account because she has hers connected to a different account, amazon has kept on telling me that l need to share my payment info with her account along with any gift card balances in order for her to be able to drop in to any of my devices which l find unacceptable, she has her own account which lve now added to a household account without sharing payment information.

this is where it gets strange, after this when l asked to drop into kitchen it tells me "there is not device called kitchen, do you want to connect to kitchen or bedroom" which ends up in an infinite loop of me saying "kitchen" and alexa replying "do you want to connect to kitchen or bedroom" and informing me there is no device called kitchen. and thats where l left off from amazon support because all they kept on saying was "share your payment details" which didnt even work for the 10m l did connect our account payment details all l got was the same responses as above.


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Edit:

found out that the announce command works and will announce on all Alexa devices within the "household" but still havent the foggiest why it wont allow her to drop in on the kitchen.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2019, 07:36:22 pm by Sirus »

Offline jwlv

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Re: Help required with drop in features
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2019, 08:26:22 pm »
I believe that once you allow another account to drop in, you can call that person by saying "drop in on [person's name]." You should not drop in by the device name. And you don't need to be in the same household. Whoever told you that at Amazon is incorrect.

Sirus

Re: Help required with drop in features
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2019, 08:43:40 pm »
l can drop in fine on my sisters, the kitchen echo dot can as well, but if she drops in it will just drop in to my bedroom echo dot, she so if lm in the kitchen l she will be unable to contact it. however l added her amazon account as a household account, whenever l ask to drop in it asks if l want to drop into kitchen or bedroom then proceeds to tell me that there is no device associated with kitchen then provides those options again. l just want to be able to allow her echo to drop into whichever of my devices she asks for be it bedroom or kitchen without providing my bank details to her account which l was the only reply amazon support kept on giving me before cutting me off.

it makes no sense because as her account is part of my household now the announcement command works, but it wont allow her to drop into a specific device on my account.

Sirus

Re: Help required with drop in features
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2019, 02:44:46 am »
so, more weirdness this morning, l had no problems dropping into my sisters Alexa yesterday but now suddenly (despite the settings) using the drop in command to drop into my sisters device results in kitchen or bedroom dropping into each other rather than her device....

Offline jwlv

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Re: Help required with drop in features
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2019, 03:43:59 pm »
I suggest that whatever you did to get where you are, undo it all. Including adding your sister to your household and sharing payment information. You never did mention what your sister's device is called. From your previous messages, it seems that your devices are kitchen and bedroom and her device is kitchen. If you are all under the same household account, you should not have two devices named kitchen.

The correct way to enable drop in from different accounts is: (do this for yourself and your sister)
Use the Alexa app and sign up for Alexa calling and messaging.
Give the Alexa app permission to access your contact list. (I don't like this, but no other way around it)
You need to enable drop in for your sister and your sister need to enable drop in for you.

After this is set up, your sister can say "drop in on your name". Your name has to be exactly as it is shown on the contact list. If she has you listed as my little bobby bro, then that's what she needs to say. She cannot say "drop in on my brother" if that's not what it shows on the contact list. Since you have more than one Echo device, Alexa will list the devices and ask her to pick one. Drop in will connect and everyone's happy.

You should also check the settings of each of your devices to make sure that drop in access is turned on. I believe they are off by default.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 03:46:29 pm by jwlv »

Sirus

Re: Help required with drop in features
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2019, 04:04:14 pm »
l did reset everything once to try from scratch, but l was never given an option of which device to drop into until l enabled the household account, and then it got weirder by offering me the option of bedroom or kitchen then telling me neither of them existed.. then offering them again as choices, the most strange part tho is announcements work fine, either way however the settings you have suggested are exactly what l originally did prior to Amazon support messing things up even more.

(her device btw is under her real name, but for the sake of example lets just name it sister)
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 04:05:46 pm by Sirus »